The Holy Spirit (13) – Communication with God (1)
What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father,
and with His Son Jesus Christ.(1 John 1:3)
- God’s Children Should Communicate with God
From 2 Samuel 5:18 onward, we read that the Philistines filled the Valley of Rephaim and attacked Israel. David did not just go out to fight but asked God first. He inquired, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You give them into my hand?” And God said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” David went relying on the word of God and defeated the Philistines.
But once more the Philistines came up to the same place again. They spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. Though it was the same place and the same enemy, David still asked God first. This time, God told him another method. “You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees. It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the LORD will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.”
David won a great victory again by following the word of God. David did not only do this in the battles but in everything. He asked God, “What will happen this time? What should I do this time?” and obeyed God’s words. Thus, he had no fear even in the valley of the shadow of death, and he was always prosperous in his ways.
How good would it be if we could also ask God in everything like David and act according to God’s answers? If this is possible, our faith will grow very quickly, we will
have happiness and peace in the family; we’ll prosper in our workplaces and business fields.
Furthermore, if you are ministers and workers of God, you should know the will of God and obey it so that you can win the victory in the spiritual warfare against the evil spirits. Only then can you lead so many souls to the way of salvation by God’s guidance, and bear abundant fruit to give glory to God.
- All the children of God must hear the voice of the Holy Spirit
Some misunderstand that being guided by the will of God is only for those with very great faith, but only if you know the way and obey, it is very easy even for new believers.
Of course, to the extent that our faith grows, we can hear a clear voice in more depth and greater detail. But seeing God face to face and hearing His voice is possible only at the level of full measure of faith like Abraham or Moses. But even if you cannot see God face to face or hear His own voice, we children of God who are saved all have Holy Spirit in us, so even new-believers can hear this voice of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”
But even after they receive the Holy Spirit, many believers ask wanting to be guided by the Spirit, “How can I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit?” If you just understand the method through the teachings of the Bible and follow it, all of you will be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Also, if you just obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, all of you will receive blessings and prosperity.
It is very natural to communicate with God as His children who believe in Him. In fact, we should be able to communicate with Him. It is not strange for children to communicate with their father. But rather, not being able to communicate is strange. If you cannot communicate with God, you can only do everything within the limit of your own ability.
When you run a business, it is difficult to get anything more than what you are capable of doing. Sometimes, you can encounter disasters or be deceived by evil schemes and face
loss.
But those who communicate with God can receive abundant blessings by the guidance of God who knows everything and protects you. Even when an evil person tries to cheat you, you have the urging in your heart so you can avoid being cheated. Not only for personal matters, but also for accomplishing God’s kingdom, we have to do it through communication with God since it is something spiritual.
The fruits born by those who communicate with God and fruits born by those who do not communicate with God are very different. For example, when they counsel a church member, those who communicate with God will receive what they have to tell the member or the family by the Holy Spirit, but those who do not communicate with God will think of the things to tell the member with the facts that they already know.
They will just speak within their limit thinking, “The husband and wife have some conflicts, so I should just tell to love each other,” or “This man is a faithful worker for God, so I should just give him a word of blessing.”
But just telling them to love each other with your thoughts will not enable them to love each other. Even though one looks like a faithful worker for God, only God knows what kind of words he needs to hear. Only when you communicate with God will you realize what kind of word is needed for each one, and only when you preach that word, you will have the authority over the word. Then, there will be grace of thorough repentance. The souls will change and blessings will come. This way, you can counsel other members spiritually.
Only when you work in spirit in this way, will you be able to bear fruit and have revival. Of course, even those who do not communicate with God can comfort the members with words and treat them nicely so that there seems to be revival.
But if you care for souls in a fleshly way like this, when the souls face tests later or when the person who is nice to them moves to another section or parish, the members will fall away like rotten fruits fall down in a storm. This cannot be any reward before God.
Therefore, God’s children, and ministers and God’s workers have to long to communicate with God. Romans 8:14-15 says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Sons who can call God ‘Abba, Father’ are those who are led by the Spirit of God. In the Bible, we can see the patriarchs of faith all communicated with God and were led by the Spirit of God.
- The Importance of Communicating with God
Even new-believers should be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and receive His guidance. Of course, not everyone who has received the Holy Spirit hears the voice of the Holy Spirit. In order to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, we must make our heart in such a way that the Holy Spirit can work in our heart. The heart in which the Holy Spirit can work is the heart of truth. God is light, goodness, love, and truth itself. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God can only work through the truth.
If your heart is full of untruth and have no truth, you cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, you should first fill your heart with truth. You can hear the voice to the extent that your heart is filled with truth.
On the other hand, if your heart has no truth but only untruth, what kind of voice will you hear? Only Satan who opposes God will work through your thoughts and move the evil heart.
To the extent that your heart has unrighteousness, lawlessness, and untruth, you will not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit but the voice of Satan. Then, you will be moved and motivated by Satan and do evil things. Finally, you will go the way of death, not the way of prosperity and life.
What we have to realize is that we have to do two kinds of work at the same time to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. First, we have to fill our heart with truth so that we will be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And secondly, we have to get rid of the thoughts of untruth, namely fleshly thoughts from within us so that we will not hear the
voice of Satan.
Also, we have fleshly thoughts because we have elements of untruth in our heart.
Therefore, we have to cast off untruth itself from our heart to cast off fleshly thoughts.
Suppose your children are deaf and they cannot hear you saying “I love you.” Also, when your children are in a dangerous situation, you call them with a loud voice but they cannot hear you. How sad these situations are!
Those parents who have children challenged by deafness want their children to be healed very much. When they cannot get good results because of the limitations of medical science, they grieve throughout their lives because of it. It is the same with our Father God.
If you profess your faith in God but cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, you are spiritually a deaf child. Even if God tells you He loves you so much and teaches you the way of blessings, you cannot hear. Then, how sad He would feel! Therefore, if you truly love God, you should hear the voice and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit, communicate with God clearly, and share your love with Him.
- Ways to Communicate with God
1) Hearing His Voice Directly
What kind of ways are there for us to communicate with God? First, you may hear the voice of God, of the Lord, or of angels directly. In case of Abraham, Moses, and Samuel, we can see they heard the voice of God directly and answered to Him.
Also, the apostle Paul heard the voice of the Lord on the way to Damascus and accepted Him. The apostle John heard the voice of the Lord while he was writing the book of Revelation and said that the voice was like the sound of many waters. When the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, she met the angel and heard his voice directly.
Other than these, there are many other places in the Bible where you can see men of God hearing the voice of spiritual beings. As for me also, God spoke to me directly a couple of times. When He let me know that it is the will of God to cry out in prayer wholeheartedly, He said, “Look at Luke Chapter 22 Verse 44.” When He called me as His servant, He spoke to me in a very clear and mighty voice.
The voice of God, of the Lord, or of the angels do not come from within our heart but from outside. Here, you have to be careful about one thing. Some say God whispers to them in their ears while they are actually hearing the voice of evil spirits. God does not whisper in anyone’s ears when He speaks. His voice is mighty and clear, and is like the sound of many waters. It is the evil spirits that whisper in one’s ears. You should be able to discern between the voice of evil spirits and of spiritual beings that belong to God.
It is actually quite unusual for ordinary believers to hear the voice of God, the Lord, or angels. This is especially true for the voice of God and of the Lord which is not given to just anybody. God gives His voice only at the appropriate time to the ones who are right in His sight.
Some people say they heard the voice of God or the Lord although they actually heard the voice of the Holy Spirit. So, this expression is not correct. The most common way for God to communicate with us is to let us understand His will through the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Whereas the voice of God and the Lord is heard from outside, the voice of the Holy Spirit comes from within our heart. Holy Spirit, who dwells in our heart, speaks to us from within. It is not heard as any kind of sound unlike the voice of God or the Lord, but if you can hear it clearly, it is clearer than any other voice.
2) Hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit
The voice of the Holy Spirit can generally be divided into two categories.
First, it gives us understanding through the word of God.
For example, if you have a trouble with and hate somebody, you will be reminded of the word, “love you neighbor as yourself.” Through the word, you will understand it is wrong to hate your brother and you will be guided to love him according to the will of God. This is the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, the voice of the Holy Spirit moves our heart. He moves our heart about whether we should or should not do something, and how to do it, when, and so on. When Jesus was preaching the gospel on this earth, He sometimes preached openly while at other time He preached in secret. Jesus did all these things 100% by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, so He could accomplish the providence of God completely.
We can hear some testimonies of the members about receiving the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A believer was standing at the bus stop. When the bus came, he suddenly did not want to take the bus, so he took the next bus. Then, he saw the first bus got into a big traffic accident.
Holy Spirit is the spirit of God the almighty, so He knew what was going to happen to the first bus. So, He moved the heart of His child not to take that bus. In this way, the Holy Spirit, who knows everything, moves our heart so that we will avoid accidents or difficulties and be guided into prosperous ways.
3) Hearing the Voice within Inspiration
Additionally, to communicate with God, we can hear a voice through inspiration. This is a little different from hearing the voice in sound. But since it comes to our heart very clearly just like sound, we say it is voice.
There are many cases of hearing the voice in inspiration. What the prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea wrote in the Bible was heard by the voice by the inspiration in the work of the Holy Spirit.
Let me tell you one of my experiences. When God let me know about the June Twenty-ninth Declaration of 1987 and other future things, He gave me the contents within inspiration. Sometimes, God let me know the exact amount of offering of a particular week or that a particular person would come to the church and register. When I received the inspiration, I proclaimed it on the altar or told other people around me, and those things were fulfilled as said.